Elliott Associates: Novell Won't Go to Pieces

novell suse linux elliott associates

A report by Bloomberg News suggested that Elliott Associates planned to buy Novell then potentially sell off some or all of the pieces. But a March 11 statement from Elliott Associates denied the report:

No Deal (At Least Not Yet…)

Of course, Elliott Associates first needs to “acquire” Novell before the hedge fund can actually decide to do with the company’s various assets — which range from SUSE Linux to identity and access management and data center software.

Novell has confirmed that it is evaluating an unsolicited takeover bid from Elliott Associates; the bid is valued at about $2 billion. The VAR Guy continues to believe that Novell will provide an update before BrainShare 2010 starts March 21 in Salt Lake City, Utah. If Novell doesn’t offer an update, the takeover bid could become a major distraction for Novell, partners, customers and annoying anonymous bloggers attending BrainShare.

The VAR Guy has also wondered if a white knight — IBM, HP, Microsoft, Oracle, or CA Inc. — would emerge to buy Novell. But the best potential fit on that list — CA, which has a bunch of security and system management synergies with Novell — seems to be out of the running, The VAR Guy believes.

The reason: CA just opened its wallet to acquire Nimsoft, the managed services software provider, for $350 million. The VAR Guy doubts CA would open its wallet even wider only a few days later to buy Novell.

Still, stranger things have happened in the software market.

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